Greens slam Gillard on brown coal export deal

By Adam Morton and Tom Arup

THE federal government has been accused of sending a bad signal on climate change policy after one of its first acts was to back the first major deal to export Victorian coal.

Trade Minister Simon Crean was jostled by a group of protesters as he attended the signing of an export deal between Melbourne-based Environmental Clean Technologies and Vietnamese company TinCom.

From 2014, the Victorian company expects to export 2 million tonnes of dried brown coal a year to burn in Vietnamese power stations, eventually rising to 20 million tonnes a year.

It says it can reduce the water content of brown coal from about 60 per cent to 12 per cent, lowering the greenhouse gas emitted by about 30 per cent to roughly the same level as black coal exported from New South Wales and Queensland.

Mr Crean said the government was committed to tackling climate change and meeting growing energy demands by backing technological advances that reduced emissions.

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''People are entitled to protest, but I don't think the vast bulk of the Australian people think that exporting coal is bad for the Australian economy because they know the Australian economy is heavily reliant on coal,'' he said.

''That is an issue, though, that we can't allow to continue in its old form … We have to find ways in which we reduce the carbon footprint. This investment is an example of how that can be done.''

Little brown coal has been exported from Victoria because of flammability concerns.

The Age revealed last year the state government was considering allowing the mining and export of treated coal to India. The proposal was later shelved.

Environmental Clean Technologies will buy its coal from Loy Yang Power and does not need a coal allocation from the state government.

Greens climate change spokeswoman Christine Milne said the federal government could not be serious about reducing emissions if was willing to open up a ''massive polluting'' export industry.

She called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to tell Mr Crean to focus on export deals that helped the climate.

''Brown coal is the most polluting fuel we have. Pumping energy into transforming it into the equivalent of black coal will only increase pollution at home and overseas,'' she said.

About 40 protesters heckled Mr Crean as he arrived at the Langham Hotel at Southbank for the signing.

Environment Clean Technologies chief executive Kos Galtos said the deal was a ''historic step'' that would lower emissions from Vietnamese power plants that would be built regardless, and the deal would create hundreds of construction jobs in the Latrobe Valley.

Environment Victoria chief executive Kelly O'Shanassy said it was a ''disastrous first action'' by the Gillard government.

Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Tony Mohr said it sent ''precisely the wrong message'' before this weekend's G20 summit, where the agenda includes reducing fossil fuel subsidies.

Last Monday, green campaigners hit the halls of Parliament House with an air of optimism. Kevin Rudd was opening a window on climate change and they had arrived to ''consult''.

Most had been invited into the government's tent. The heads of the WWF, ACF and Climate Institute had met with Mr Rudd's advisors and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong several times in the past fortnight.

Environment Victoria, Conservation Council WA and a community climate change group from Newtown - all under the banner of Climate Action Network Australia - met with Rudd's advisers on Wednesday.

Government insiders say Ms Gillard, while understanding climate change, has not been engaged with the issue.

She is said to have taken most of her cues on climate change from Senator Wong during the early years of the Rudd government. Recently, she is said to have been more independently engaged.

Environmentalists buoyed by hope at the start of this week, but still angered by the decision to shelve the emissions trading scheme, are preparing to go after Labor at an election if new climate policies don't emerge.

As the Climate Institute's John Connor said, ''I am sure they don't think they can get away without a detailed plan on pollution and climate change before the election.''